TANGUTURI PRAKASAM PANTHULU GAARU SHORT STORY

Tanguturi Prakasam Pantulu

Tanguturi Prakasam
Pantulu (23 August 1872 – 20 May 1957) was an Indian politician and freedom
fighter, chief minister of the Madras Presidency, and subsequently became the
first chief minister of the new Andhra state, created by the partition of
Madras State along linguistic lines. He was also known as Andhra Kesari (Lion
of Andhra). The Andhra Pradesh government issued G.O on 10 August 2014
declaring his birth anniversary a state festival.

He was born to Telugu Niyogi Brahmin family of Subbamma
and Gopala Krishnayya in
the village of Vinodarayunipalem, 26 km from Ongole in Madras
presidency (now Prakasam
district, Andhra Pradesh). When he was 11, his father died and his mother
had to run a boarding house at Ongole, a profession that was looked down upon
at the time.When E. Hanumantha Rao Naidu, his teacher at school,
moved to Rajahmundry, he took Prakasam along with him as that
place had better opportunities for education. He acted in Gayopa khyanam by Chilakamarti Lakshmi Narasimham in
1890 along with his teacher. He
was interested in becoming a lawyer since childhood, but Prakasam failed
his matriculation examination. However, he managed to
go to Madras and
become a second-grade pleader. Returning to Rajahmundry, he eventually became a
successful lawyer. He was elected as Municipal Chairman of Rajahmundry in 1904
when he was 31 years old. This election was a tough one at that point in time.